Ghost
by MaskedAngel18
Summary: A thief that nobody notices or sees gets caught up in the events surrounding the Gandor and Martillo family, as well as ending up on a blood-soaked train. What does she do? Not just stand there and watch, that's for sure. T just in case.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey! I'm starting a new Baccano! story as well. There aren't too many of these stories, so I'm deciding to write one as well. I will probably also do one shots for this anime as well. If I do, it'll be between ClairexChane and FiroxEnnis because those are my two favorite pairings. But, I haven't decided on whether or not to do one shots yet. Right now, I just want to get this story off the ground. I will probably finish this, since not finishing is a pet peeve of mine.**

**Another thing, I know nothing of fashion from the 30s, so there may be some historical inaccuracy concerning fashion, at least concerning my OC. That may be because I don't really care about fashion. Anyway, it's just a heads up for those of you that may be history buffs. **

**Well, you know the drill. Please review, as reviews are to me as killing is to Ladd.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Baccano! in any way, shape, or form. I do, however, own my OC, Alice.**

Chapter 1

1931

Firo, Ennis, and Maiza were at the train station with the Gandor brothers, waiting for their friends to arrive on the train from Chicago, _The Flying Pussyfoot_.

Firo stood on the platform next to Ennis, wondering what getups Isaac and Miria will be wearing coming off the train. They always chose the most eccentric outfits.

If he remembered correctly, they were also waiting for a friend of Maiza's, who was also on the same train. He wondered who he was…

A loud yell interrupted his thoughts.

"Firo, Ennis, Maiza!"

Firo looked over to see Isaac and Miria waving frantically at them. As he thought, Isaac and Miria were the only two dressed as though they were from the Wild West or something. They came over and hugged Maiza and Ennis.

"What happened to you two? You look like hell." Firo was only telling the truth. They did look like hell.

"That's a story for another day. By the way, Firo…."

Firo looked over at Isaac to see that he seemed to be excited about something. It was true for Miria as well. What were those two so happy about?

"We have a surprise for you." Miria practically sang. Surprise? What kind of surprise?

"You'll never guess who we found on the train!" The two then pointed behind them. Firo looked to see….

…

1924

Firo was walking over to the Gandors' place to hang out with Luck and Claire. He had decided to take a shortcut through a couple of alleyways. In hindsight, that probably wasn't the smartest thing to do since he got cornered by a couple of thugs and there was no one to help him. He was screwed.

There were three guys, all in their late teens. And they were all big enough jerks to rob a twelve-year-old at knife point.

"You made a big mistake wandering around here all by yourself. I suggest you give us all of your money, and maybe we'll let you go unharmed."

Firo wasn't really about to buy that, but he didn't have a whole lot of options. He was trapped.

Just then, a light brown blur suddenly slid underneath the guy right in front of him, taking him down by his ankles.

After the guy hit the ground, a girl about Firo's age quickly got up and ran to the end of the alleyway. The guy she took out got up, pissed about the interruption.

"Hey girl, watch where ya goin'."

"How about you pick on someone your own size?"

Firo looked to see the girl staring straight at the guy, a defiant look on her face.

The guy laughed.

"Listen, this is no place for a little girl like you. Why don't you go home and knit something or whatnot?"

She smirked at this.

"Does this mean you don't want your wallet back?"

"What are you…?"

Everyone turned to look in her direction to see her waving a wallet around in her hand.

The guy's hands shot down to his pockets, only to find that his wallet was not in them.

"Why you little-ack!"

No sooner had he said this that she threw a small bag at his face. It exploded on impact, powder scattering everywhere.

The girl disappeared around the corner, and the thugs chased after her. Firo didn't know why she had helped him, but now those thugs were going to kill her for it.

He ran down the alleyway and went around the same corner the girl did. Just as he came out of the alleyway, he nearly ran into a red-headed kid.

Firo stopped in his tracks to see Luck and Claire standing in front of him, a bit surprised by his sudden appearance.

"Luck, Claire, did you see a girl being chased by thugs come through here?"

They both nodded.

"Yeah, they looked like they were about to kill her for something. Why do you ask?"

"Those guys were holding me up just now, but then she came, knocked one of them down, and stole his wallet. She helped me out back there, but now she's in trouble."

Claire looked down the alleyway where he saw the girl go.

"Only if they can catch her, she was actually pretty fast on her feet."

Firo looked to Claire. He didn't seem overly worried. But still, Firo wanted to make sure she wouldn't end up as a corpse for helping him out.

"I'm going to go check things out."

Firo ran past them. Luck and Claire followed behind him. As they ran down the alley, they heard a loud voice. They stopped at the corner of another alleyway, and listened in on the very vocal, very angry thug.

"That little bitch! She took all of my money! I'm going to kill her if I see her again."

"Where the hell did she go? There's no way that she managed to make it all the way down this alley and around the corner in the time it took us to get here."

"Well, at least she left your wallet behind."

"She mocked us! She made fools out of us. That brat is going to pay!"

From the sound of things, the girl was gone. Now they needed to get out of there before those thugs took their anger out on them.

They made their way back to the Gandor's place. The whole way there, Firo couldn't help but wonder who that girl was.

….

1931

Everyone at the Chicago train station was getting ready to board the fancy new train, _The Flying Pussyfoot_. There was a group of people in black suits loading instrument cases into the freight hold and a group of people in white suits farther down on the platform.

People were talking about how the train was supposed to be modeled after the old English trains. Besides all of that, it was a typical day at the train station.

"What are you talking about? You aren't leaving us, are you, Tony?"

"I'm retiring. It's your turn to take over from here."

Claire was a bit sad to hear that the old guy was retiring.

"By the way, Claire, I have something I need for you to do."

Tony walked off to the side and waved to someone. Claire couldn't see who he was motioning to. The other old man conductor had already walked off into the conductors' compartment, so it was only Claire and Tony when a young woman, who looked about 18, walked toward the two of them. She had wavy light brown hair that reached down to her shoulder blades and tied back in a low ponytail and blue-gray eyes. She wore a pair of plain, brown pants and a long-sleeved, button-downed white blouse that she kept tucked in. She also wore a little red scarf around her neck. She wore black shoes with a slight heel on them and tight, black leather gloves.

Claire's widened as he saw her approach them. What was she doing here? She was supposed to be in New York with the others. Was she sent here for a job? He couldn't ask any of these questions in front of Tony. He would have to wait 'til after they leave.

"This young lady needs help getting to New York. She isn't able to buy a ticket, but she told me that she got into a bit of trouble in town and that she needs to get home before she gets killed. I don't normally do this, but after hearing her story, I couldn't just turn her down."

That sounded like something that would happen to her. She was always getting into trouble. Plus, she was a very good actress. She tended to get things her way because of that. Maybe she was here for a job. But then, why wouldn't she have money for a train ticket back?

"I understand. I'll make sure she gets to New York safe and sound."

Tony smiled.

"Then I'll leave this to you. I'll see you around."

He walked off down the platform waving his hand. As Claire watched him walk off, he noticed a very cute girl in black clothing leaning against the train.

"Whoa. You don't see too many of those lately."

The young woman followed his line of sight and saw the same girl. She smirked.

"If you like her, why don't you go talk to her?"

Claire shrugged it off.

"Eh, I have to drive the train soon. You'll be with me in the conductors' compartment. Come on, Alice."

She blinked, taken aback. He knew her? From where?

She followed behind him into the conductors' compartment. The other old man was doing something. She didn't care enough to see what.

She sat down on one of the chairs and waited for the train to depart. It looked like she was going to make it home. But, she knew, sometimes things happen. She wasn't going to believe it until she stepped foot off the train and saw some familiar faces.

She had to wait a while, but eventually, the train left the station and they were on their way.

She waited until the old man left and it was just her and the younger conductor in the room.

"So, you seem to know me. Do I know you?"

The question took Claire by surprise. She didn't recognize him? He knew that she had a bad memory, especially with names, but she was normally able to remember faces.

He smirked. He might as well let her struggle with it. It was normally entertaining to watch her struggle with her bad memory.

"What makes you think that I know you?"

Her eyes narrowed slightly. Just what was his game?

"Well, you know my name and Mr. Tony didn't mention it. That means that you know me from somewhere."

Of course she caught that. She's a very observant person. Considering that, he thought that she would at least recognize his face. Oh well. It was a lot more fun to mess with her like this.

"Well, I guess you caught me. Yes, I do know you. Whether or not you know me depends on whether or not you can recognize me. Do I look familiar to you?"

Ok, now he was just messing with her. But, now that she thought about it, he did look somewhat familiar. It was mainly his eyes that caught her attention. Something about them seemed very familiar. For some reason, they made her think of puppy-dog eyes. However, something felt _very_ wrong with that.

"Kind of. Your face does seem somewhat familiar, but it's mainly your eyes. I know I've seen them somewhere before."

So she mainly recognized his eyes. Oh well. It was good enough.

His smirk grew a bit.

"Well, if that's the case, then I won't tell you my name. You have to remember it on your own."

"Ehhhhh?"

Her face was priceless. He knew that would get to her. She'll probably throw a fit later about it, especially if she remembers, but this was just too much fun.

Alice sat there pouting.

_He's messing with me. I know it. He knows I have a bad memory. That's why he's doing this. I saw the amusement in his eyes! I'm going to get him for this…As soon as I remember who he is. I know I should know him. DAMN MY BAD MEMORY!_

The old man came back and it was basically quiet for a while. Alice looked out the windows and watched the scenery pass her by. She didn't know how long she sat like that, but, eventually, her stomach started growling.

Claire heard it and turned to her. She had her arms over her stomach and it was apparent that she was trying not to let the hunger get to her.

If she didn't have money for a train ticket, she probably didn't have money for food either.

"If you're hungry, you should go to the dining car to eat something."

Alice looked over at him. He was smiling at her. She won't deny that she was hungry, but….

"Don't worry about how to pay for it now. Just go eat something."

She somehow knew that he wasn't going to let this drop, and since he was insisting….

"Ok." She nodded.

She got up and left for the dining car. Claire sighed. As with everyone else, he wasn't sure if she was real or just an illusion in his world, but he may as well make sure that she got something to eat while on the train. Plus, it would make his job that much easier if she remained in the dining car.

Alice entered the dining car. The smell of the food made her mouth water slightly. It had been a while since her last meal. She didn't have enough money for a train ticket all the way back in the first place and had used what little money she had on some food once she made it to Chicago. After that, she resorted to her 'specialty' for the remainder of her stay in Chicago. Of course, she ended up pissing off some big mafia family or whatever and had to lie low for a while until she got out of town.

She sat down at the counter and asked for a menu. She was looking over her options when she thought she heard some familiar voices, but she shook it off. She was really hungry.

She heard a couple of kids run by and some guy choking, but other than that, she didn't pay a whole lot of attention to her surroundings. She didn't really care too much about what the other passengers were doing.

At least until…..

…

1924

Firo, Luck, and Claire were all hanging out near some stand on the sidewalk. It had been over a week since the mystery girl helped Firo out. There were a lot of people in New York, so it wasn't overly surprising that she hadn't been seen since. But still, Firo was still kind of wondering who she was.

"Hey Firo, did you hear about all of the stores that have been robbed lately?"

Firo thought back.

"You mean the ones with the store owners that never saw the thief?"

Luck nodded.

"Yeah, those are the ones. Apparently they didn't even notice that they were robbed until after the fact. They have no idea when they were robbed, just that they were robbed. They're starting to call this thief a ghost."

This caught Claire's attention.

"How much money did the thief steal?"

Luck looked over to his adopted brother.

"That's the thing, no money has been stolen. Just things off the shelves."

This confused Firo.

"If it wasn't money that's being stolen, then why are they making a big deal over it?"

"Well, the thing is, some of the stores got hit more than once, and it's starting to add up how much they owe for the stuff. Also, most of the stores being hit are those under the protection of the Gandor and Martillo family."

Firo saw some sense in that.

"So I guess your dad wants the thief caught, then?"

Luck nodded.

"He's a bit frustrated that no one's ever seen this thief. Plus, who knows how long it will be before he decides to steal from the register."

"Hmmm…..I guess I can see why that's a problem."

Claire found this whole thing interesting. A thief that was able to rob people blind, like some sort of ghost? That sounded like a fun challenge.

Just then, someone ran around the corner from the alleyway that was behind him.

Claire turned around just in time to see the same girl he saw briefly over a week ago.

She stepped up on a crate that was next to the stand that was there on the sidewalk, jumped up to grab the awning over the stand. She then climbed onto the awning then jumped over to a flagpole that was sticking out from the building and swung over until she was lying on top of it.

Before any of the boys could react to that, a group of thugs, not the same ones that caused Firo trouble but different ones, went around the same corner she came from and raced down the sidewalk.

"She went this way! Come on!" one of them said.

She clung to the flagpole for a few minutes until it looked like that the jerks that were chasing her were gone.

She looked down at the ground. Then she regretted it. She was afraid of heights. She didn't know if she really was that far up or she was just imagining it.

She looked over at the awning and reached for it. It was out of her reach. Damn it!

Suddenly, she heard a snap and the next thing she knew, she was dangling on a broken flagpole that was threatening to fall at anytime. Ok, maybe she should panic a bit.

Then she calmed down. Maybe if she tucked and rolled, she would be fine. That was just what she did. Just before the flagpole broke again, she landed on her feet and tucked and rolled so her leg wouldn't break. It still hurt a bit, but it wasn't broken.

She then proceeded to cross the street.

"Hey, wait up!"

At first, she assumed that was directed at someone else. But when she turned her head around, she saw a boy in green running towards her. He ran out into the street after her just in time to run in front of an oncoming car.


	2. Chapter 2

**Yo! Sorry for making you wait. I'm not sure what you guys thought about the first chapter since I didn't get any reviews, but since it was just the first chapter, I guess you guys need more to read before you have any thoughts about whether or not you would like it or not.**

**And for those of you that read the first chapter, you may have noticed that I said the OC's name was Kate and then I referred to her as Alice in the story. Well I fixed that so that her name is Alice now. I was debating between two names. My head said one thing and my fingers did another. I fixed the mistake in the first chapter, so it should be fine now.**

**I would like to thank ReticentlyYellow and cookie2718 for alerting this story and cookie2718 for favoriting it. That was the only indication I got that someone likes this story. So I would now like to ask, please review. They motivate me.**

**Now, time for the story.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Baccano! in any way. I do own my OC, Alice.**

Chapter 2

Firo froze as he saw the car coming. He didn't notice it when he ran into the street after the girl.

He was going to die. He was definitely going to die now. That was the only thought going through his head as the car screeched, trying to stop before it hit him.

He was vaguely aware of Luck and Claire calling his name. He had shut his eyes, expecting the pain that was sure to happen in the next second.

Suddenly, something grabbed him by his sleeve and yanked him to the side. When he opened his eyes, he was on the sidewalk and Luck and Claire was on the other side of the street, looking shocked about something.

Firo blinked, not sure about what just happened. Suddenly, something whacked him upside the head.

He looked down in pain and rubbed his head, even more confused about what was happening.

He looked up to see the same girl he ran after. She seemed to look a bit angry about something.

"Do you have a death wish or something? Hasn't anyone ever told you to look both ways before crossing the street? You could have been killed!"

Firo stood there, shocked.

"Did you save me just now?"

The girl looked a bit exasperated, but she nodded nonetheless.

Claire and Luck were just as surprised as Firo, but they were also relieved. Just when the car was about to hit him, the girl suddenly ran out and grabbed him by the sleeve and pulled him to safety.

It happened so fast that it took a minute to register exactly what happened and that their friend was safe.

It looked like she was scolding him about something.

"Thanks…for saving me."

The girl looked at him carefully, and then responded with a nod.

"Just don't go running out in front of cars like that."

She then turned around and started walking off into the crowd that wasn't paying either of them any mind.

"Hey, wait!"

It was too late. She was already gone with the crowd. It was amazing how fast you could lose a person in a crowd in Manhattan.

Suddenly, a man in his twenties ran up to Firo. He seemed relieved about something.

"Hey kid, are you ok? I nearly ran into you back there."

Firo understood that the man was the driver of the car that nearly hit him.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It was my fault for not looking. I would have been hit if it wasn't for the girl that pulled me out of the way."

The man looked a bit confused for some reason.

"Girl? I didn't see any girl back there."

Now it was Firo's turn to look confused.

"Hey Firo!"

He looked over to see Luck and Claire running over to him.

"Are you ok? That was close."

Firo nodded.

"Hey, you two saw the girl pull me out of the way, right?"

Claire nodded.

"She was really fast, but I still caught it."

Firo stared at his friends for a while, ignoring the confused man next to them.

Firo stared back down the sidewalk where she disappeared from his sights. Just who was she?

Said girl was wandering down the street, paying attention to nobody around her, just as no one paid any attention to her. Nobody cared about the twelve-year-old girl that was walking next to them. That was because nobody could see or hear her. It didn't matter if she was screaming bloody murder and needed to go to a hospital, nobody would notice.

It would seem ridiculous to some people, right? How could they not see what was right in front of them? How could they not hear someone who was screaming right next to them? As far as she was concerned, that was the way it was. It had been like that for a long time.

But, the boy from earlier, he was able to see her. He was even able to hear her. Why was that? She was so used to not being seen, that she didn't know how to act when someone actually came after her and not because she made them notice her by making a show of stealing their stuff. She, of course, did that on purpose for the boy and someone else because those thugs were jackasses and she couldn't just stand there and watch them get mugged, even if she knew that no one would do the same for her.

Why did he follow after her? Did he recognize her from before? If that was the case, it never happened to her before. No one recognized her because no one had seen her before.

Should she distance herself from him? She couldn't help but think that there was some kind of catch to this.

She shook the thoughts from her head. She knew that, eventually, he would forget about her. They all did. It was only a matter of time. Right now, she should just be concerned with her next meal.

…

1931

"Hey, Isaac."

"Yeah Miria, what is it?"

"That girl over there, doesn't she look familiar?"

"Hmmmmm…now that you mentioned it, she does, doesn't she? But, where do we know her from?"

"Hmmmmmm….Oh! Remember that letter we got from Ennis a while ago?"

"Yes, the last one or the one before the last one?"

"The one before the last one. It was from a couple of months ago."

"Yes, I remember. What about it?"

"Don't you remember what it said?"

"What are you two talking about?" Jacuzzi was confused as to what the two would be talking about.

"That girl over there with the little red scarf, we know her from somewhere, but where?"

Isaac and Miria pondered for a while about the letter that had some sad news. Realization dawns on the both of them at the same time.

"ALICE!"

Said girl nearly fell out of her chair, shocked from the sudden shout of her name. She looked over to see two very familiar people at the end of the counter, waving hysterically at her. They were also dressed as though they were from a western movie. It didn't take her long to remember the only two people she knew to dress like that.

"Isaac? Miria?" She was definitely surprised at seeing two more familiar people on the train.

She got up out of her seat and walked over to them. She wasn't expecting to see anyone she knew on the train. She definitely wasn't expecting Isaac and Miria to suddenly pull her into a group hug, suffocating her.

"Oh Alice, we were so worried about you!" Miria sobbed.

"Nobody knew where you went or how to reach you! Firo was especially worried about you!" Isaac sobbed.

"Nobody even knew if you were dead or alive!"

"Uh, I think you guys are suffocating her. You may want to let go."

Isaac and Miria complied. Alice, thankful for the oxygen rushing into her lungs, nodded her thanks to the girl with an eye patch on.

"Please, like I ever go down that easily. You guys should know me better than that. How do you guys know about that incident anyway?"

Miria, now calming down, explained.

"Ennis wrote about it in a letter she sent us. Everyone was so worried about you, especially Firo, since he was the last one that saw you."

Alice sighed.

"Well, as you can see, I'm fine. I managed to get away okay. I just ended up catching a train in the progress."

"Um, I don't mean to be rude, but what incident are you talking?"

Alice looked over to see a guy with a cool looking sword tattoo on his face. She was pretty sure she saw him recently. Maybe back in Chicago?

"It's a bit of a story. By the way, what's your name?"

He seemed a bit startled and intimidated. He looked like the kind of person who cries at the drop of a hat.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to intrude like that. I'm Jacuzzi Spoltt."

"And I'm Nice Holystone."

Alice nodded.

"I'm Alice. Now, this actually happened a few months ago…"

….

1931 (a few months earlier)

"Hey Alice, wait up!"

Firo ran up to his friend who somehow managed to get so far away so fast.

She looked towards him and smirked.

"What's the matter? Can't keep up?"

Firo caught up to her and they both started walking down the sidewalk at a comfortable pace.

"You're always so fast! There's no need to be in such a hurry all the time."

She shrugged.

"Eh, force of habit. I'm so used to having to make a quick getaway that I don't notice how fast I actually walk."

It was late afternoon and Alice and Firo were on their way to the Gandors'. Alice was wondering if Claire was in town. She hadn't seen him in a long time. She knew he came to visit every so often after he quit the circus.

She stopped her thoughts when she noticed that Firo seemed nervous about something. She had a feeling what was on his mind.

"Okay, tell me."

Firo was a bit shocked, but he tried to play it dumb.

"W-What are you talking about?"

"You have something on your mind. Is it about Ennis?"

Again, he was shocked by her intuition. She just thought that he was easy to read sometimes.

"Well….." There was no point resisting, he might as well just tell her. It was true. He wanted a girl's advice to help him a bit, and Alice was the only girl he was remotely comfortable talking to about this. Even though she wasn't like most girls.

Alice saw that he was hesitating.

"Come on, you can tell me anything. I won't laugh no matter how stupid it is."

Yeah, that really helped him. It was like her to say something like that.

"Well…."

That was when it happened.

A car suddenly turned around the corner and stopped right next to them. Someone opened a window and pulled a gun out.

Before either of them could react, Firo was shot in the head. He fell to the ground and Alice saw the blood beginning to pool around his head.

She couldn't stop her automatic reaction to this.

"Firo!" She dropped her guard for a second as she stepped forward towards Firo. That was all it took for a man hiding in the shadows of an alleyway to step out and hit her behind the head. Alice fell to the ground from the hit and went unconscious.

The man picked her up and hurried over to the car. No one noticed the blood starting to gush back into the "dead" man's head. Alice was placed in the backseat and the man climbed in after her.

By the time Firo recovered, the car sped down the street. He only caught it in time to see it turn the corner.

"Man, what a bunch of asses, right Alice?"

He didn't get a response. He looked around to see what was wrong. What was wrong was that Alice was gone. He couldn't register it. His brain just refused to recognize that Alice had been kidnapped.

When it did register, he got up and started running as fast as he could to the Gandors'. He ran through the alleyways and shoved aside anyone that got in his way.

Luck and his brothers were just chatting away with Maiza, who decided to stop by for a visit, while playing cards when Firo suddenly rushed in. He was panting hard and had put his hands on his knees while he tried to breathe.

"Firo, what happened? And where's Alice? Wasn't she coming over here with you?"

Firo looked up and stared at Luck.

"She's gone! We were jumped on the way here. Some guy pulled up beside us in a car and shot me. I thought that Alice was fine, but when I recovered, she was gone! I think they kidnapped her!"

Silence hung in the air. Firo realized that Maiza was in the room and automatically felt a little bad. She was like a daughter to him.

Then Luck broke the silence.

"It's going to be okay, Firo. We're gonna get some guys and start asking around. There's no way that they got too far. We're going to find her, so don't worry about it."

Firo looked down at the floor. He couldn't help but worry about his friend. Who knew what those guys were going to do to her. He wasn't even sure why she was kidnapped in the first place.

"Do you remember what the car looked like?" Firo thought back and told them about the car.

Luck nodded and he and his brothers got up and left.

It was silent for a while. Firo felt a weight on his shoulder and he looked up to see Maiza. He also looked a bit worried, but he knew that there was no use in panicking.

"Don't worry. Alice is a lot more capable than she looks. This is only the second time she got caught like this. She'll be fine."

He knew that Maiza was right. Firo looked over at the piano that the Gandors' had set up there a while ago. Just to think that not five minutes before the incident, he was hoping to hear her play something.

…..

Alice woke up to feeling something underneath her rocking. She almost opened her eyes when she remembered what happened. There was a car and something that had hit the back of her head.

Great, she had been kidnapped. _She_ had been kidnapped. She could imagine the guys' reaction to this. They would never let her live it down after the reputation she had built up over the years.

This was definitely annoying. She wondered where she was.

She felt the car stop and continued to pretend to be asleep. When the moment was right, she was getting out of there.

"Okay, as soon as we see the train coming, we're going to push her on the railroad tracks and let the train take care of the rest. That should show the Martillo family who they're messing with."

Okay, so she was near the railroads tracks and these guys wanted to get back at the Martillo family. That pretty much answered whatever questions she had.

Since she was sure that she didn't want to get hit by a train anytime soon, she figured she should make her escape once they got her out of the car.

"Okay, I hear the train. Marty, drag her out by the tracks and prepare to throw her."

She felt someone grab her and drag her out. Once she was out of the car, she made her move.

….

"…..after dodging their blows and using a bunch of evasive moves to stay out of their grasp, I actually caught the train they wanted to throw me in front of and rode it all the way to its next stop."

"Where did the train take you?"

"The train went all the way to St. Louis. When I was kidnapped, I didn't have much money on me. I was only able to afford to go as far as Chicago and I ended up staying there a while."

"But, if you didn't have much money for the train, how were you able to take care of yourself in Chicago for as long as you did?" Jacuzzi was a bit confused about that. He was pretty sure that she didn't get much to eat with the way she was eating up the Chinese food that Isaac and Miria ordered for her.

Alice smirked at him.

"I resorted to my 'specialty' while in Chicago to sustain myself. Plus, I was used to sleeping in the streets before."

"Specialty? And what do you mean by used to sleeping in the streets?"

Alice was thinking of how much to tell him. She decided that there wasn't much of a point in not telling.

"I was an orphan back in New York. I didn't have anyone and the foster home I stayed at for a while sure didn't give a damn about me. So I grew up in the streets, fending for myself, until I ran into some good friends."

"Oh, sorry….but it was a good thing that you found some friends. Life must have been rough for you."

Alice swallowed an egg roll before she continued.

"Yeah, it kind of was, especially when you didn't exist to anyone else."

"Huh?"

Jacuzzi, Nice, and Czes, who was quietly listening, were confused by that statement.

"What do you mean? How do you not exist?"

Alice sighed.

"I asked myself the same question before when I was on my own. There were actually times when I somewhat doubted that I existed. Eventually, I came up with this: I exist yet don't exist."

"You're not making any sense."

She smiled a small smile.

"I know, but that was how things were, even if it was ridiculous."

Jacuzzi felt sorry for her. He never knew anyone who had gone through something like that.

Alice caught the look of pity on his face.

"What? There's no need to pity me. My life is fine now, so there's no point in dwelling on how things were."

That was when Isaac and Miria pulled her into another hug.

"That's right! There's no point in dwelling on such sad memories."

Miria nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, and soon, you'll be home surrounded by friends and not having to fend for yourself again!"

Alice couldn't help but smile at this. Maybe, just maybe, the train ride would be just fine and she would just talk the night away with her friends.

Oh, how she couldn't be more wrong.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hmmmm…it seems like more people like this story from the traffic reports. It's not as much as the other stories, but then again, this anime doesn't get nearly enough exposure in my opinion with how awesome it is. Oh well.**

**Please review before I get pouty. Anonymous reviews have been enabled.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Baccano! I do own my OC, Alice.**

Chapter 3

1924

Weeks had passed and none of the boys had seen the mysterious girl that would disappear into nowhere. They had told Keith and Berga about her, but they didn't seem to be as curious about her as they were.

Meanwhile, the ghost thief had struck multiple times at a couple of stores protected by the Gandor family. The thief still didn't steal any money from the stores, but Mr. Gandor was starting to get pissed off by this elusive thief.

Again, no one had seen the thief, and again, no one knew that they had been robbed until the end of the day when they checked their stocks. Store owners had been watching everyone that came in very closely, but they still would be robbed by the unknown thief. This "ghost" was starting to be feared by everyone.

Winter was coming. That much could be felt in the air. She needed to find a coat soon, before it got too cold.

Once again, she was out on her own. Once again, no one saw her as she walked down a street with a particular destination in mind.

As she came across a fruit stand, she noticed some little kids staring at the food. She knew that they were hungry like she was, but it didn't look like that they were willing to try to steal any of it.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out two twenties. It was from the last asshole that had tried mugging someone when she was nearby. Why would he mug someone if he already had this much money? Honestly, she thought that some people were either greedy, stupid, or even both, only some of them, not all of them. Like the kids in front of her, they were only hungry. They weren't greedy or stupid, just hungry.

She folded the bills and walked behind them. She had slipped the money into one of the older kid's pockets and walked away. In a minute, he would discover money that, to him, came out of nowhere, ponder about how it got there for a second, then use it to get some food for him and the others. He would have never seen the girl with light brown hair staring at him from up the sidewalk and watch this very reaction happen. But, she was used to this. She was used to not being seen.

She continued to make her way towards her own destination.

Did she even exist in this world? Was she just some ghost who had no memory of her past? The only things that made her not completely believe that was that she a) couldn't go through walls b) was actually aging and growing up and c) got hungry. She figured that ghosts couldn't get hungry, or age.

She looked up as she walked towards the entrance of the store she was looking for. It was just a little shop, but it served her purposes just fine.

She walked in and, once again, was not seen by the store owner. She had heard that they were all keeping a close eye out for the thief that kept hitting their stores. Too bad that they could never see the thief when she was right in front of them. Nobody could. That was why she was successful as a thief.

She went down one of the aisles while pulling a bag out of her pocket and unfolding it. She started to load it with as much food as possible before she would exit through the side door that went into the alley.

….

Firo, Luck, and Claire were walking back to the Gandors' place, seeing that there wasn't much to do out in the city today. They were about to pass one of the stores that got robbed frequently by the ghost thief when Firo caught a flash of light brown from the corner of his eye.

He turned his head to see the same girl who saved him twice coming out of the alleyway next to the store. He was about to call out to her when he saw that she was carrying a bag that looked pretty full. Before he could think much about it, the middle-aged store owner came running out the front door.

He spotted the three boys on the sidewalk and ran up to them.

"Hey, I was just robbed! You wouldn't have happened to see the thief, would you?"

Firo's eyes widened and then he turned around.

Wow, that was fast. It normally took a lot longer before someone found out that they had been robbed. It sounded like this guy checked his supplies more often throughout the day now.

She turned around at the sound of the store owner's yelling about being robbed. It was at that moment that her eyes locked with the same boy she had helped out. The same boy who was able to see her and her bag of stolen goods.

Her eyes widened at the realization that, for the first time, she had been caught stealing, and not because she had let them. The boy motioned to his friends and they turned around to see her. Shit! They could see her too! She didn't know how to react.

When she saw the boys start running towards her, she did the only thing that she could think of. _Run like hell!_

She took off down the sidewalk with her bag in tow. She didn't need to look over her shoulder to know that they would still be behind her. She knew that looking over her shoulder would only slow her down.

She didn't have to go too far. She had a place that was in the area.

Firo was surprised by how fast this girl was. She was only a few feet away from them when they spotted her. Now she was a couple of meters away and was gaining more distance between them.

She was almost there when she was hit by a bit of misfortune. She tripped over a crack in the sidewalk and fell forward. She landed on her stomach and had dropped her bag. She got up as fast as she could and looked over to see that the boys were gaining on her. She ran off, abandoning her bag, and took a turn into an alleyway.

Firo disregarded the bag left on the sidewalk and ran the rest of the way to the alley she disappeared into. There was no way she would have made it to the other end in time for him to lose her.

Firo took the turn and found the alley…empty. She wasn't there. Firo blinked, as though to make sure that he was seeing things correctly.

She had vanished into thin air. How was that possible?

Claire didn't need to go all the way to Firo to know that they lost the thief. To think that the ghost thief had been a girl this whole time. He didn't see that coming.

He looked down at the bag she dropped while Luck ran forward towards Firo. He picked it up and looked into it to see its contents. It was full of food.

"I think that girl's an orphan."

Firo and Luck turned their heads towards Claire, who was walking towards them with the bag.

"All that's in here is food. I think she's just an orphan who's fending for herself. She must not have anybody."

Claire was an orphan himself, but the Gandors had taken him in so he didn't go without the necessities. She, however, wasn't as fortunate. He couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for her. She was a thief, but she was only a thief out of necessity.

Meanwhile, the girl was huddled in her hiding place, waiting for them to leave before she could allow herself to relax. She was lucky to have made it up the fire escape and through the second story window of an apartment complex that had long since been abandoned in time. She had to steal rat poison at one point so that she wouldn't be bothered by them, but other than that, this place had sufficed for her to live in. It was a roof over her head for the bad weather, anyway.

She risked a peek through the window. They boys were too busy looking through the bag she dropped. Her stomach growled as she remembered all the food she had ditched. That was supposed to have held her through a couple of days if she rationed herself to just stopping the hunger pains and nothing more.

Now she would have to go steal all over again. But, she was too tired and hungry to try again that day.

Eventually, the boys left, and she allowed herself to go into another fitful sleep.

….

1931

"Rail Tracer?" For some reason, that sounded a bit familiar to Alice. But where did she hear it from? She really hated her bad memory sometimes.

"What is that?" Jacuzzi was confused as well, because Isaac and Miria just said that he was going to be eaten by it.

Isaac and Miria explained how it was a monster that hunted down trains and would devour all of the passengers.

This had all sounded familiar to Alice.

_And then, once all of the passengers are gone, the train itself would vanish from the tracks._

Alice's eyes widened as she remembered who had told her this story. Actually, she knew the very person who _started_ it.

She slammed her head against the counter, missing the plates and silverware, as she came to a realization.

_THAT ASSHOLE! How dare he mess with me! I'm going to get back at him for this someday. _

"Are you ok, Alice?" She tilted her head towards Miria with what she hoped was a smile.

"Yeah, I'm just fine. I just remembered that I need to get revenge on someone after I get off the train."

"Who's that?" Jacuzzi was confused about this change in mood. First they were talking about a monster, and then Alice said something about revenge.

"It's nothing. You were saying?" She motioned to Isaac and Miria.

"Oh, well, as I was saying, there's only one way to stop the Rail Tracer from devouring our souls."

_Technically you don't need to worry about that, but then that would ruin the whole story for him._ Alice knew that they had nothing to worry about. But Claire needed people to believe in this story, so she wasn't going to say anything.

"What is it?" Jacuzzi looked scared out of his mind. He really seemed like the kind of person who cries easily.

"…What was it again?" Alice almost started laughing. Jacuzzi was scared out of his mind and Isaac couldn't remember how to beat the monster. She knew that it wouldn't have done anything, but it would have given Jacuzzi some peace of mind if he knew how to beat a fictional monster.

"I don't know. This is the first time I'm hearing this."

"Well, I heard this from the young conductor on the train."

_Yeah, the same guy I have to hunt down later for being an ass. _

With that, Jacuzzi got up and ran off towards the conductors' compartment.

"I have to go find him or we'll all be killed!"

Then he was gone. Honestly, there was no need for them to panic. They weren't going to get killed by the Rail Tracer.

Nice followed after him. It looked like she was going to ride out the rest of the train ride with Isaac and Miria and mentally laugh at Jacuzzi panicking over nothing. Of course, she couldn't laugh out loud because then she would look crazy. Although she knew a couple of people that would say she already was crazy.

She went back to not paying attention to anyone else in the background and was planning on enjoying her time on the train with her friends.

That, however, only lasted about a couple of minutes because, at the same time, three guys in black suits came in with guns, a guy in a white suit in the middle pulled out two guns, and some poor sap had brought a knife to a gun fight at the other end of the car.

They had all said something along the lines of "Don't move!" at the same time as well. This had to be a new record. Three groups holding up the same train at the same time.

Isaac and Miria were now on the ground with their hands up, and the guy with the knife did the smart thing. He backed up out of the door he came through, saying, "Sorry for the commotion."

Alice sighed. Honestly, couldn't she get one day without some shit happening. She wanted a break, which was why she decided to convince the conductor to let her on the train to go home. She knew that she would get a break there. But, it looked like that wasn't the plan for tonight. If the guys wanted her to do a job as soon as she got back, she was going to charge them for the first time ever.

"Alice, you should get down." Miria whispered.

"Don't worry, they won't see me."

Miria looked confused. Of course she was. They both were. They had never seen what she had meant that she didn't exist to the world. Well, they were going to get a demonstration. She had waited until the guys in black and the guy in white had stopped firing, which ended with the guy in white getting killed.

As soon as that was done, she got up and started walking to where Jacuzzi ran off to, the conductors' compartment.

As predicted, the guys in black didn't raise a fuss and neither did the passengers. That was because nobody saw the girl at the counter get up. They probably didn't even see a girl at the counter in the first place.

Alice did notice an empty seat and an open window as she passed by. It looked like someone left before the shooting started.

Before Alice reached the door, it opened, revealing another guy in white. This guy had blonde hair and blue eyes.

_Oh shit!_

….

1924

It was the next day after the boys had almost caught the ghost thief. They didn't really expect the thief to be some girl. They were convinced that it had been a professional.

But Claire did have a point. She was probably an orphan. Since she had no way of earning the money for food, she did the only thing she could turn to: stealing.

However, how was it that nobody noticed her before?

Firo was wondering aimlessly through the city with Claire. Luck was sick today.

They were both wondering about the girl. Who was she? Why wasn't she at an orphanage? Why did it seem like nobody could see her? They both had a lot of questions and no answers.

Firo looked across the street he was planning on crossing. Guess who he saw? Yep. The same girl who was the ghost thief. What were the odds?

This time, he was planning on getting answers.

She was miserable. Why? Because she had no food and the hunger pains were being a real bitch today. She could barely focus on her goal for today because they were hurting so bad. In fact, they were hurting so bad, she didn't notice the thugs that she lured away from the boy she kept seeing, or, to be more accurate, the boy who kept seeing _her_ had seen her and were following her.

Once she was about to pass through an alleyway, they had grabbed her by the back of the collar of her shirt and dragged her into the alley.

Firo and Claire saw this and chased after them, after making sure that they wouldn't be hit by a car.

They ran down the alley until they heard voices from around a corner. They slowed down and peeked around the corner. The thugs were there, and one of them had the girl by the front of her shirt and off the ground and up against the wall.

"You think that you can get away with stealing from me? You think that you can just fuck with us and not expect us to do anything about it? Well, I'm here to tell you that you're completely wrong. I'm going to teach you a lesson you won't forget."

He raised a fist and punched her in the stomach. Firo heard her grunt in pain. He had to do something. After all, she saved him from these guys. He should at least return the favor.

He ran out so that he was in their view.

"Hey! Leave her alone!"

The guys looked over at him. Clearly, they weren't threatened by him.

"Hey kid, this isn't any of your business, so why don't you – ahhh!" At that point, she had grabbed his arm and bit him, making him release her. As soon as her feet touched the ground, she took off running towards Firo.

When she was just about to pass him and turn the corner, it happened.

_BANG!_


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry it took me a while to get back to this story. I'm pleased that this story seems to be getting more popular. **

**Well, anyway, it's time for the update.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Baccano! I do own my OC, Alice.**

Chapter 4

1931

Alice knew who was in front of her. It was the Russo family's best assassin. Ladd Russo.

How did she recognize him off the bat with her lousy memory?

She saw him back in Chicago just before she left pulling off a job. His work was something that wasn't easy to forget.

There was no denying that this guy was good. Good and _psychotic_! She had to disappear from his line of sight just to make sure that he wouldn't see her. She could probably outrun him, but they were on a _train_. She wouldn't be able to go far.

The instant she recognized him, she dived under a table. She prayed that if she brushed against someone's leg, they would ignore it and not bring attention to it.

Luckily, she got out of the way in time for him to see the dead white suit (probably one of his cronies) and then look up to see the black suits. She sighed as she peeked out from under the table. She dove just before he saw her.

But, she should probably wait until she was sure she wouldn't be caught.

She watched as Ladd walked up to one black suit, use his gun to kill the black suit behind that one and watch as the third one escape through the door at the other end. After the black suit pulled out a knife and tried to slash Ladd, Ladd started wailing on him like he was a professional boxer. Yep, she made the right decision in hiding.

As the black suit was being beaten to a pulp, two more white suits came in and she took the opportunity to leave and try to find Claire. She knew that he could help out here.

On her way out, she heard something about a Huey Laforet, but she didn't see how that was important and made it out the door.

What she didn't know was that Czes was the only person that saw her leave during the commotion.

…..

1924

Alice felt pain as she went down. More specifically, she felt pain in her leg.

She slid on the ground a bit due to the momentum she built up. She tried to get back up, but her leg refused to respond. She looked at it to see blood pouring out.

Her eyes widened. She was going to die. She knew it. They were going to kill her.

She sat up as best as she could and tried to scoot back away from everyone, but the thugs were faster.

The leader (at least she assumed he was the leader) that she stole from grabbed her by her hair and forced her up against the wall again. He grabbed the front of her shirt again when she was off the ground.

She was in pain. She had never been shot before and she wasn't accustomed to this kind of pain. She stared at her would-be murderer through half-lidded eyes.

He was smirking.

"Now you can't run off on us. I'm going to make sure you pay for biting me."

He pointed his gun at her face.

Firo was at a lost of what to do. He didn't know that they had a gun on them. He wanted to help her. He had to help her.

Finally, he clenched his knuckles and did the same thing she did before. He ran forward and crashed into the thug's legs, causing the both of them to fall over.

Luckily, the gun wasn't fired in the fall.

The guy dropped the girl and she screamed in pain as she landed on her bad leg.

Before Firo could recover from the fall, the gun was turned to face him.

"I've had enough of you, punk!"

"You may want to think twice before firing that here."

Both the guy and Firo turned around to see who was talking. Firo recognized the man with brown hair and glasses as Maiza. He was part of the Martillo family.

Apparently the thug knew who he was as well because he blanched and turned the gun away from Firo.

They both got up as the guy started to try to explain what happened.

"It's not what you think….we were just trying to put an end to this little thief over here and this kid got in the way. I thought that he was an accomplice, so I…"

"He is not an accomplice. And if I recall, you aren't really known for your honesty. I suggest that you leave and not cause these kids anymore trouble if you know what's good for you."

The thugs ran off, not wanting to piss him off.

Maiza looked down at the boys.

"Are you two okay?"

Firo and Claire nodded.

"But she needs help. She got shot in the leg."

"She?"

Maiza looked up and saw that there was, indeed, a girl who looked about Firo's age with light brown hair and clutching her leg against a wall.

He moved forward to see the damage her leg took, but when she noticed him moving closer to her, she panicked and tried to scoot away as fast as she could. Her efforts became futile when she felt her back hit a dumpster.

Maiza walked right up to her and crouched down to her level. Fear was apparent in her eyes. She was afraid of him.

He looked down to see the blood coming out of her leg. Of course, he already knew that she was bleeding pretty badly due to the blood trail she left behind.

He reached out a hand to her.

She flinched at this and closed her eyes. She didn't know what he was going to do, but she was afraid. She didn't know how to react when people noticed her other than run away. But she couldn't run with her leg like this. She didn't know what to do.

She didn't know what she was expecting, but she was surprised when she felt someone pat her on the head.

She opened her eyes and looked up at the man, confused. He was smiling.

"There's no need to be afraid. I'm not going to hurt you. If you let me, I will get you a doctor to look at your leg. You want to be able to walk again, right?"

To be able to run again was more accurate, but she did want her leg to get better.

Slowly, she nodded.

Maiza then carefully picked her up and started carrying her bridal style.

He looked over to the boys.

"You can come along if you want. She's your friend, right?"

Claire shook his head.

"Not exactly, but she did save Firo once from the thugs that were about to kill her and from being hit by a car. We think that she's also the Ghost Thief."

Maiza looked surprised, and then looked down at the girl. It was a bit unbelievable that this little girl could pull off so many robberies without being noticed. But, after Claire brought it up, she seemed to panic and squirmed a bit in his grip. Apparently, it was true.

He chuckled a bit when he thought about the reaction Mr. Gandor would have when he found out that this little girl had been pulling off multiple thefts under his nose. It was bound to be hysterical.

She looked up at him suspiciously when he chuckled. Of course, she didn't trust him completely. But, he wasn't going to hurt her.

"Don't worry. Everything will be okay."

She looked at him warily. Then she felt tired. She looked down and saw the same boy she had seen so many times before along with a red-headed kid. The red head was looking at her curiously and the other one looked worried.

_Why?_

She couldn't help the question. No one had ever given a damn about her before.

_Why would they help me?_

Claire could see the question in her eyes. She seemed to be asking him why. Why would they help her?

He briefly wondered how long she had been by herself for her to question someone's motive to help her. Then again, it would probably be the smart thing to do given some of the people you would see in the area.

"What's your name?"

She eyed Claire warily for a few moments after he asked the question. Right when he thought that she wouldn't answer…

"…..Alice…"

He watched her until she passed out. Apparently, she was tired.

…..

1931 Chicago

Alice sighed.

She had been in Chicago for a few months now. She took the opportunity to check out a new city since she couldn't afford another train ticket and there hadn't been any trains that went all the way to New York in a while.

Chicago seemed to be interesting, but it just wasn't home. She liked Manhattan better.

She was walking around on a rooftop near the train tracks, thinking about how to get back home.

Unfortunately for her, more and more people seemed to be able to notice her from time to time. Maybe it was because she was older? She didn't know the answer. Her unintentional "invisible" thing still worked most of the time though. Maybe she could get away with sneaking on the train that was supposed to be nonstop to New York? That was the perfect chance to go home as long as she didn't slip up.

Her train of thought was lost as she heard someone crying below her. She looked over the edge to see that three guys had one guy at gun point. The kid seemed to be getting the ever loving crap scared out of him with the way he was bawling and begging for the men to put away their guns.

There wasn't a fire escape on this side of the building, so she couldn't go down to help him. That was one thing about her that never changed. She could never stand and watch someone get killed or mug or whatever if she didn't think that they deserved it.

That got her into trouble on several occasions, but she had always made it out okay.

She reached into her pockets to find the little bags of powder she used to blind her pursuers.

The kid should consider himself lucky that she decided to restock on these yesterday.

She looked over the edge, waiting for the right moment to drop them.

The kid was now on the ground and being kicked. Apparently, these guys killed some friends of his. She could understand that he wanted to avenge them.

Suddenly, one of the guys raised his gun again.

Right at that moment, Alice started throwing the bags at them.

They were nailed right in the heads.

"What the hell? Who did that?"

"Leave the kid alone!"

This only pissed the men off, as you could imagine.

"Why you little bitch! You're going to regret acting against the Russo family!"

That figured. Of course these guys were part of the Russo family. The same family that wanted her head on a stake for robbing them blind multiple times.

Of course, they only had a vague description on her, so she didn't think that she would be recognized anytime soon.

Jacuzzi, upon realizing that the men were going to shoot someone, started panicking all over again. A stranger helped him and now she could get shot!

However, before anyone could do anything, a giant hand reached out and crushed the gunman's hand.

Alice couldn't see all the details in the dark, and was kind of glad she couldn't from that crunching sound that was followed by screaming. Ouch.

She could see the outline of the man that destroyed the gunman's hand. He. Was. HUGE!

She had never seen anyone that big before! Damn!

Well, anyway, shortly after that, the other two guys dropped dead and then something hit the injured man in the head. She could have sworn that she saw something flickering on whatever hit him.

She figured it out as the kid got up, ran over to his group, and screamed, "RUN!"

Shit! It was a bomb!

She turned around and got as far away from that side of the building as possible. Lucky for her, when the bomb went off, the explosion stayed on that side of the building, so she was safe.

She sighed in relief. Apparently he didn't need her help after all. She shrugged.

_Now, about that train home…_

….

1932

Sigh.

It had to rain _now,_ while she was out. She didn't even have a jacket on her either. This sucked.

She was looking into a store window next to the newspaper place, debating about if someone would raise a fuss if she went in, grabbed an umbrella, and left, when a car pulled up in front of the newspaper place.

Curiosity getting the better of her, she watched as a girl climbed out with an elderly man and a black woman. It looked like this girl lived in high society. But she didn't have that snobby look that most rich people had.

In fact, that face actually looked somewhat familiar…..

That thought quickly disappeared as the door to the _Daily Days_ slammed opened and two guys in dark clothing stormed out. Of course, they didn't pay her any mind as they walked right passed her. Which proved that she was still invisible to the world because she stole from the Runorata family on more than one occasion. Oh well.

"Hey!"

Alice turned around to see the girl walking up to her. She blinked. Okay. That pretty much said that she had met her before, but where?

"Sorry, do I know you? My memory is terrible at the best of times."

"I'm Eve Genoard. You helped me one time about two years ago….."

Then it had all clicked into place.

"Oh yeah! I remember. Sorry about that. As I said, my memory's terrible even at the best of times. Well, nice to meet you, Eve. I'm Alice."

She raised her hand for Eve to shake and she took it.

"So, what brings you out here in such weather?"

"I'm here to find out something about my brother. Aren't you cold or something? It's raining but you don't even have an umbrella."

Alice shrugged.

"Eh, I'm fine. Besides, it's not like rain can hurt anybody."

At that moment, a car driving by suddenly started sliding against the wet pavement and crashed into a parked car.

"….I stand corrected."

"I hope he's okay."

Eve looked a bit worried about the driver, but the guy climbed out of his car, looking shocked.

"He's moving. He'll be fine."

"Well, do you want to come inside with us? Maybe the rain will let up soon…"

"That's okay. I actually have somewhere I need to be soon. I'll see ya later."

Alice walked off waving, leaving Eve to hopefully get want she wanted from the people at the _Daily Days_.

….

1931

The Gandors and Firo were waiting at the Gandors' place. Luck had been told by some of the men he sent out that they had found Alice's kidnappers and that they were bringing them in.

Soon, they were going to find out what they did with her and where she was.

Firo was hoping that they wouldn't have to wait too long. Ever since Maiza took her in, she had grown onto him almost like a sister. It was the same for the Gandors.

She was also the best thief in Manhattan. If they ever needed her expertise, they just had to bring up with her and she would do it free of charge.

She would turn down any money they offered her because she said that she owed them.

Firo tried to think of how she owed them, but all they did was take her in.

Right then, the door opened and three men were being dragged in by the Gandors' men.

They were shoved to their knees on the floor in front of them.

Luck walked up to the one in the middle.

"You know who we are, right?"

Scared as hell, the man nodded.

"Then we'll get straight to the point. You orchestrated a kidnapping of a young woman named Alice. We would like to know where she is. We would also like to know who tried to ventilate Firo here."

Firo stepped up, which only made the kidnappers panic. After all, he had been shot in the head. He wasn't supposed to be alive.

They were so scared, they looked like they were about to shit themselves.

"H-h-how? How are you alive? I saw you get shot!"

Luck stared down at him threateningly.

"That's not what we want to hear. We want to hear where you took her and why she was taken."

When they still didn't answer, Luck called out to someone.

"Hey, Mr. Tick. We may have some people here for you."

"Really?"

The moment the men saw Mr. Tick peek out from behind a door holding a bloody pair of scissors, they spilled everything.

"G-g-g-gustavo hired us! He said that she was wanted for stealing from the Runorata family. He also said that she had ties to the Martillo family. He said that it would send a message to the Martillo family if we took her and threw her in front of a train!"

Firo's eyes widened, but he did his best to remain calm.

"So, what did you do to her? Did you take her directly to the train tracks?"

"Yes! We went straight there and as soon as we heard the train, we dragged her out, but she was awake and escaped from our grasp."

Firo felt relieved, but that didn't explain why Alice wasn't back yet. She had been kidnapped two days ago.

"So, did you see where she went?"

"We tried to grab her again, but she was fast and kept dodging us. Since we were at a curve in the train tracks, the train was going by slow when it was passing. At one point, she jumped onto the train and crawled onto the roof."

So, she caught the train they were trying to kill her with. That explained why she wasn't back.

"Where was that train heading?"

"We don't know, but there isn't much of a point to do so. More than likely, you will need to check along the tracks if you want to find her."

Luck's eyes narrowed.

"And why's that?"

"Because she's dead. We shot her on her way out."


	5. Chapter 5

**Oh . . . crap! I am so sorry for making you all wait over a year for this update. I honestly didn't mean to put this on temporary hiatus. I just got caught up in so many other projects. The next thing I knew, over a year past and this was still at four chapters. Don't worry, I still remember the plot I'm going to do for this story, and I just got Baccano! on DVD, so hopefully I won't take so long on the next update.**

**Again, I'm sorry for the long wait. I hope this chapter makes up for it.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Baccano! Alice is my OC.**

Chapter 5

1931

Alice was running down the hallway towards the conductors' compartment. She needed to find Claire if Ladd Russo was planning on doing a killing spree on the train. She knew that he could take that guy on, no problem.

As she neared the end of the train, she ran by some guy in a black suit standing next to an open window, screaming bloody murder. She raised an eyebrow at the sight, but just ran by. The guy was probably just tripping on some bad drugs. He never took notice of her, but that was hardly a surprise.

She ran the rest of the way to the conductors' compartment without incident. However, for some reason, the light was off in the compartment.

Wait, was that blood she smelled? Yep, it definitely was. The carnage was gruesome. Alice looked around to see blood everywhere and two bodies in conductor uniforms. The old man had a bullet hole in his forehead, and while that counted for a lot of the blood and brain bits around his area, he had nothing on the faceless wonder that was immediately to her left.

Yeah, this guy did not have a quick and painless death. Was it Claire? No. While Alice might have thought that for a split second, she knew now that Claire wasn't the other body. A killing that involved this much blood was Claire's style and the faceless guy didn't even have the right hair color.

However, she now had a bit of a problem . . .

"Dammit Claire! Can't you stay in one place? Where the hell am I supposed to look now?" she asked out loud. She turned around and walked away.

Let's see, if she was Claire, where would she be? Well, considering that he had a sense of justice with his killings and that there were two parties intending to kill (she wasn't sure if she could include the party that had the knife guy since he wisely backed out), he was probably out dealing with them. But then, why did he kill the other conductor?

Alice shook her head. There was no point in thinking too much over this. Claire had his methods with his killings just like she had her methods with her thieving skills. Besides, since she was typically overlooked by most people, she might be fine without Claire's help. She then thought about her friends she met in the dining car. She might be fine, but they actually existed in this world. If anything, she needed to make sure that they would be okay.

Alice turned around and walked away, her shoes leaving bloody footsteps after having stepped into a puddle of blood.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1924

Alice hobbled into the room after the man who introduced himself as "Maiza." It was two days after this man saved her. He had let her stay in his home while a doctor fixed her leg and ordered her to stay off of it for a while. However, Mr. Gandor had wanted to see the person who was responsible for robbing all of the stores under their protection.

So here she was. Being led into what was possibly the lion's den to her with a bad leg and a crutch. Well, she might be able to smack someone around with the crutch, but that was only if no one decided to use a gun, which seemed unlikely to her.

Alice knew that she was in trouble. She could feel it. She was surprised at how foreign this feeling was to her. Maybe it was because she got away with so much without even getting a lecture that this feeling of dread was unfamiliar with her.

Whatever the reason, she couldn't really tell. All she knew was that the feeling got worse when she looked up to see Mr. Gandor staring at her with disbelief. She wanted nothing more than to run as fast as she could out of there, but the crutch reminded her that she didn't have that option now. Stupid crutch.

"This is the ghost? This little girl pulled off the thefts?" Claire, Luck and his brothers watched from one side of the room as the girl started to tremble slightly under their father's gaze. It was clear that she didn't once think that she would have been caught and that she was now afraid of what they were going to do to her.

"Yes. I was also surprised, but the boys have confirmed this themselves. She is the Ghost of Manhattan," said Maiza. Alice shifted her crutch as she fidgeted under everyone's gaze. Honestly, a few days ago, no one would have noticed her even if she screamed bloody murder. How was it that she was now at the center of everyone's attention? It defied everything she came to know about life. Everyone else existed in this world. She didn't exist to anyone. It had always been that simple. So what was going on here? Why could they see her? Actually, a better question would be: why did they actually care enough to save her from thugs and bandage her leg?

Claire could see how uncomfortable she was at all of the attention. Her fear of what they might do to her for stealing everything was evident. But it sounded like Maiza had a plan for her, so she probably didn't have much to worry about.

Mr. Gandor eventually recovered from the news and regarded the little girl before him.

"Well, since this is the case, what should we do with you? Even though you never stole any money, all the stuff you stole still added up. Even though you're just a kid, thieves aren't really tolerated," said Mr. Gandor. Alice didn't say anything. She couldn't say anything with her fear stalling her voice.

"I actually have an idea," said Maiza. Alice eyed him warily. He was the one who took care of her during the past two days. What was he going to suggest? Was he going to be lenient or was he going to suggest something harsh after gaining a bit of her trust?

"Why not hire her?" Everyone looked at Maiza, confused.

"What are you talking about?" asked Mr. Gandor.

"Well, considering how much she had gotten done as a thief without getting caught, her skill is definitely unrivaled as of now. And then she has only been stealing what she needed and nothing more. Imagine all that she can get done if she didn't have to act out of necessity. It can be her way of paying back for everything she has stolen from you and the Martillo family." Mr. Gandor thought over Maiza's proposal.

Alice looked up at Maiza, eyes wide. Hire her? Not having to steal out of necessity? These concepts were foreign to her. She couldn't get it to click in her mind.

"Fine. Say that we do hire her for some jobs, how do we keep track of her? Where is the kid going to stay?" asked Mr. Gandor. Maiza smiled.

"I don't mind taking her in. I'll take full responsibility for her. And this way, she should be able pay off what she owes to the Martillo family in the same way. You don't mind if both families hire the same thief for the jobs, right?" asked Maiza. Mr. Gandor shook his head.

"No. I don't mind as long as it's the Martillo's. Okay, we'll give this a try. From now on, girl, you work for the Gandor and Martillo family, got it?" asked Mr. Gandor. Still a bit confused by what was happening, Alice merely nodded.

"Good. You'll start as soon as your leg heals up and when we get a job for you to do."

Alice stared wide-eyed at him and shifted her gaze to everyone else in the room. Was she really not going to be punished?

"Well, I better get her home. The doctor doesn't want her to be on that leg for a while longer," said Maiza.

"Okay. We'll see ya later, Maiza," said Mr. Gandor.

Maiza walked away and opened the door, waiting for her to hobble her way out. Not knowing what else to do and, if she was to be honest with herself, not having anywhere else to go, she followed Maiza out.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1930

She was so bored.

Alice knew that she wasn't technically part of the Martillo family, but still, she wished that she could watch the ceremony downstairs instead of waiting up here at the bar drinking water.

It wasn't that she had any qualms about drinking liquor. In fact, she wouldn't mind having a real drink except that she had been requested to play something on the piano after the ceremony. She always wanted to be at her best when she played and alcohol would only interfere with her performance.

Anyway, she wondered how much longer it was going to be until she could join in on the party. Alice let her eyes wander about the room. It was way too boring up here.

At least, until she saw a priest and a nun running around a table in a circle. Normally, she didn't care what other people were up to as long as it didn't interfere with her job, but this was a bit entertaining to watch.

They stopped running around the table and pointed in one direction. Then they went over to the back room where the stairs were. That was when she got suspicious. She didn't know who they were, but no one was allowed over there.

She got up and walked over to the backroom. When she got there, the priest was on the floor, trying to see through the bullet holes from whenever the ceremonial gun was shot.

As soon as she thought that, Alice jumped into action.

"Get away from there!" She ran forward and grabbed the priest by the back of his collar and pulled him back. As she did that, one of the girls working ran over when she noticed them there.

As it turned out, Alice hadn't been a moment too soon. The second he was pulled out of the way, the gun was shot. The bullet missed him by about an inch. Alice sighed. That was too close of a call.

Of course, that didn't stop the nun from freaking out.

"Isaac's been killed!" she screamed.

"Um, he's actually okay. . ." said Alice, but the nun didn't seem to be listening. Oh well, the priest would correct her in a second.

"You're going to die!" sobbed the nun.

"Well, it's true that I'll die someday. . ."

. . .Or not. Alice wasn't sure what to make of the scene as both the priest and the nun freaked out despite the fact that no one was hurt.

That was when Firo and everyone else came upstairs to see what was going on. And it appeared that he knew them.

"You know these guys, Firo?" asked Alice. Firo nodded.

"Yeah, I bumped into these two at the hat shop," he said. Then he turned his attention to the two, who had recognized him in return.

"I'm sorry . . . I didn't realize that you two were a priest and a Sister," said Firo.

Eventually everything calmed down and the two were invited to the party downstairs.

"Hey Alice! You can come down, too! We have the piano all set up for you!" Alice smiled as she walked down the stairs with everyone.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1931

The Gandors, Firo, and Maiza were all gathered at the Gandors' place. They were all sitting at a table going over what they knew. After the kidnappers had been dealt with by Berga, they had several people search along the train tracks for a few miles for any sign of Alice only to turn up with nothing.

While not seeing a body helped them keep thinking she was alive, they weren't sure as to what happened to her after she got shot. And there was one thing that they weren't able to confirm. . .

"Well, she was there with us when we drank that stuff that made us immortal. She must have had some, too. So there's no need to worry about it since she can't die," said Berga. Firo frowned.

"But she was playing that night. You know how she is. She doesn't drink any liquor because she doesn't want to impair her skills," said Firo.

"I'm actually surprised that we never got confirmation about her being an immortal after all this time. Even if she isn't prone to getting seriously injured," said Luck.

"It could be that she did get shot, but it didn't kill her like they believed. Maybe she went down from the shock of being hit, but managed to climb down after the train went out of sight and got some help if her injury didn't heal," reasoned Maiza.

"If that's the case, then we need to find out where that train was heading so we can get an idea of where she might be at," said Firo. Luck sighed.

"Even if we do know where she's at, there's not much we can do to help her at this point," he said.

"What do ya mean?" asked Firo.

"I mean that, if she's still alive and took the train all the way to its destination, we don't have a way of contacting her and letting her know to stay put so that we can provide her some transportation. Besides, she's a resourceful person. She'll find her own way back eventually. We just need to wait," said Luck.

Firo looked down. He knew that Luck was right, but he was still worried about her. She was adamant about not drinking alcohol whenever she knew she was going to play the piano. So it was likely that she didn't have the same perks as the rest of them.

But, he was going to have to trust that she was still alive and was now trying to find her way back to Manhattan.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1932

Wow, that job lasted longer than she thought it would. It got late without her noticing. Oh well, even though it was dark out, the weight of the bag slung over her shoulder and the lack of people chasing her was a testament of a job well done. All that was left to do now was to head back to the Gandor's, hand over the package, and she could go back home for some sleep.

Alice walked the streets without fear. She wasn't worried about someone trying to jump her for obvious reasons. However, she started walking at a slower pace to check out the scenery a bit more. It wasn't often that she did a job so close to the rich part of town.

However, she eventually slowed to a stop just outside the light of a street lamp in front of her, surrounding herself in shadows.

In front of her were two figures standing outside of a gate of a mansion. She was wondering who they were. After all, people in dark-colored clothing standing outside of someone's house tend to come off as suspicious characters. Actually, one of the guys she was able to recognize because she was still sore from the attempt on her life from this guy's orders.

That's right. It was that Gustavo guy Luck told her about. What was he doing here?

Curiosity getting the better of her, she hung around the shadows, watching them as one went back to a car that was parked at the curb and another one went to a phone booth across the street. He talked into the phone for a few minutes and then got into the car with the other guy.

. . . Yeah, it was starting to get cold here. Or, at least, the chilly night was starting to affect her. She had been standing there for several minutes without something happening and she still had a package to deliver. Maybe nothing was going to happen here.

Alice had decided to just leave this alone and was about to go on and complete her job when she heard something creaking.

She looked over to see the gate in front of the mansion open. Out came a familiar-looking girl and her caretaker.

Wait! She ran into this girl recently. Her name was . . .

"Eve?" Yeah, she was pretty sure that was the name. That was the girl she helped a while ago and ran into in front of the newspaper place. She had a feeling that she lived in the rich part of town, but she didn't know that this was her house.

Just as her caretaker closed the gate, the car with the two men drove up next to them. Alice's eyes widened as the men jumped both Eve and her caretaker. Eve was dragged into the car and her caretaker was placed inside a grate in a wall surrounding the mansion.

Alice ran forward to help them, but the car sped off before she could reach them. As fast as she was, she still wasn't able to outrun a car. So, instead of trying to catch them, she went over to the grate, where the caretaker was bound and gagged.

She opened the grate and untied the rope around her wrists. Then she removed the gag.

"Are you okay?" she asked. The woman nodded.

"But they got Ms. Genoard! We need to get help!" Alice spent a few minutes trying to calm the woman down.

"Easy. Now tell me, do you know who those guys were?" The woman shook her head.

"Well, then I'll be the first to tell you that the police won't be much help here. But don't worry. This is where I'll come in."

"But what can you do?" she asked despairingly. Alice smirked as she glared at the direction the car went.

"I can do quite a bit, and getting Eve back is within my abilities. I was already mad at those guys before, but now, it really is personal."

**Again, I apologize for the long wait, but I hope that this chapter makes up for it. I don't intend on making you guys wait for too long this time.**

**In the meantime, please leave a review and tell me what you think about the story so far. Also, if you guys are also fans of Durarara, I have also started a story based on that anime.**

**That is all for now. Later!**


	6. Chapter 6

**I really have no excuse that would pacify anyone, including myself, for why it took so long to update this fic. But, I finally managed to get this done! I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Baccano! Alice is my OC.**

Chapter 6

1924

"Are you being serious now?" asked Firo as he looked around the decrepit room. There were a few holes in the ceiling, caused by rotting wood. He could see some mold growing in the corner closest to what was the bathroom. On the opposite side of the room from that was a large bundle of worn-out duvets and blankets, distinctly smelling like wet dog.

". . . Yes," mumbled Alice as she searched through the blanket nest. When her search was done, she stood up, leaning heavily on her crutch.

"As I thought, I don't have anything worth bringing," she told Maiza, who was standing next to her in case she fell.

"Okay. Sorry for making you come out here, but I wanted to be sure that you weren't forgetting anything," he said. Alice simply nodded.

"But you've done dozens of robberies! With no one catching you. How do you not have any good burglary tools?" asked Firo, still surprised by what she told them when entering the abandoned apartment complex.

"I'll admit, it does seem strange," said Luck. He and Claire had decided to tag along once they heard about this outing.

"Are you that skilled of a thief that you don't need tools to help you break in?" he asked. Alice looked over at him with a slightly confused expression.

"Tools?" she asked, "All I did was take things off the shelves and leave. Nothing more complicated than that."

"It couldn't have been that simple," said Firo, "After all, people started keeping a close eye out for you. You had to have pulled off some kind of trick to keep getting away with it." Alice limped past him towards the door.

"There's no trick. I was not seen because they did not see me. They probably couldn't see me," she said monotonously.

"How could someone not see what's right in front of them?" Luck asked her, confused. Alice stopped to look over at him, debating about telling them. Finally, she looked away.

"I've come to the conclusion that they couldn't see me because, somehow, I don't exist," she admitted. Everyone looked taken aback by what she said.

"What are you talking about?" asked Claire, curious, "How can you not exist?" Alice shrugged.

"I don't know. People just haven't been about to see me or hear me. It's been like that for as long as I can remember. It's almost as if I'm some kind of ghost," she said quietly, almost forlornly.

"But we can see you! And hear you! So what do you say about that?" asked Firo. Alice looked her shoulder at him for a moment, humming in thought.

"I guess . . . that means that you're a weird bunch," she said as she looked forward again.

"We're the weird ones?!" asked Firo incredulously.

"Exactly," she said. She wasn't expecting any of them to understand. In fact, she was sure that after some time had passed, she would stop existing to these guys as well. Then she would be back where she started. She found the thought to be a little depressing.

A gentle hand patted her on the head. She looked up at Maiza, curious about the gesture.

"It must have been hard and lonely, living like that," he said sadly. Then he smiled at her.

"But, whether it makes us weird or not, we _can_ see you. You exist to us. Knowing that ought to make you feel even a little better, right?" Alice's eyes widened slightly. She looked around at the boys to see them smiling at her.

"Maiza's right," said Claire, "Even if you aren't a part of other people's worlds, you're in ours. That's enough to validate your existence right now, right?" Alice stared at him for a moment before looking down.

"Maybe," she mumbled. Maiza nodded.

"Right. Well, we better get back home. The doctor still wants you to rest as much as possible," said Maiza, guiding her out of the old building. Whether the others knew or not, Alice couldn't help but notice that her steps did feel somewhat lighter.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1931

"Hold it right there!" yelled one of the Black Suits. Alice looked over her at him, noting the machine gun in his hands.

"What do you want?" she asked him casually, thinking about how she could get out of this without getting shot.

"This train is under control of the lemures. I don't know where it is you came from, but we can't have people walking freely on this train. Now, as long as you do as we say, you won't be killed for the moment," he said, taking a step closer. Alice tilted her head, frowning.

"Lemures? Since when did a bunch of furry animals overrun a train?" she asked. The Black Suit frowned at her but he realized what she was talking about.

"I said lemures! Not lemurs! We are ghosts taking control of this train for our leader. And everyone onboard is to abide by our rules."

"HA!" barked Alice in response, "Ghosts? Everyone on this train knows how you've been moving about with guns and such." She took a step closer, making the man a little unnerved.

"Shut up!" he yelled back, "We are ghosts because we no longer exist in this world. We had given everything up for Master Huey Laforet. Although, it's probably too much to ask you to understand this." The Black Suit flinched back as Alice laughed.

"You think that I, of all people, won't understand? Just what makes you call yourselves ghosts?" she asked him, smirking, "Did you think that you cease to exist if you just throw away your name and drop your livelihood? And by doing that, you have a free pass to wave a gun around and kill people without consequence?" She took another step towards him slowly, watching how his trigger finger was twitching.

"You apparently have a vast misunderstanding of what it truly means to be a ghost in this world. And as much as I want to correct that bit of misinformation," she said, creeping closer still, "I don't have time to deal with you fakes." In a flash, she was upon him, hitting him square in the face with the heel of her palm. She swiped her legs at his ankles, causing him to fall backwards. As his back hit the floor, Alice grabbed the gun out of his hands and gave him one final hit upside the head with it.

"Hey!" The two other Black Suits hiding in the compartment threw open the door once they heard their comrade hit the floor. However, there was no one out there besides the man unconscious on the ground.

"What the hell happened out here?"

Meanwhile, Alice was already in the next car over, continuing her search.

"Honestly, Claire, I'm really tempted to kick your ass now. Will you just show up already?" she asked aloud.

Back at the previous car, a woman wearing fatigues was clinging to the side of the train, hiding underneath the window inside of which that exchange had happened.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1930

Alice was enjoying a nice day out at the park, lounging on a bench with her arms behind her head. She had some down time after her last job, and she was going to enjoy every minute of it. She was on the brink of dozing off when she heard someone pass her by. Out of curiosity, she opened her eyes to see a young woman and a large older dark-skinned woman walk by. From the looks of them, they seemed to be from the rich part of town, with the large lady being the girl's maid.

Well, she wasn't so surprised to see some high society person out for a walk. Who in their right mind would pass up on such a wonderful day indoors?

Apparently, this was also true for the thugs who blocked their path. Her eyes narrowed as the three men leered at the girl. There was a chance that money was not the only thing they wanted from her. The girl's slightly frightened face also did not sit well with Alice.

Not one to stand by during these situations, Alice stood up and stretched as she walked over to the group. She walked up leisurely to the one on the far left of the group as they continued to talk like a bunch of creeps to the girl and, without warning, gave him a swift kick to the shin.

"OW!" The guy hopped away on one foot, glaring at her.

"Where the hell did you come from?" asked one of his friends, now bewildered by her.

"Somewhere," said Alice simply, "And what are you so angry about? I thought we were celebrating some holiday where we give other people something unwanted."

"What are you going on about?" asked the one in the center. All three of them had focused their attention away from the two women.

"Well, no one here wanted your attention, so I figured it wouldn't be so out of place for me to kick one of you in the shin," she retorted. Predictably, that didn't go over well with them, and was enough to prompt them into chasing her.

"You bitch! Come back here!" they yelled.

"You know, not once has anyone convinced me to do that," she yelled back, leading them out of the park.

She kept a manageable speed to prevent them from losing sight of her. After all, this was pointless if they gave up and went back to the park. She turned around, running backwards as she taunted them.

"Is that really the best you guys got? I've had tougher competition with people in crutches!" She did not fail to notice that only two of them were following her now.

Alice turned back around just in time to see a child run out of a candy shop ahead of his mother.

"Look out!" she said as she jumped over the kid, having too much momentum to slow down in time. The kid, after seeing her jump over him, stared after her retreating figure in awe. Shortly afterwards, he was shoved to the ground by the two thugs chasing her.

"Well, now that's just rude!" called back Alice, feeling sorry for the kid who now lost his bag of treats.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1932

Eve woke with a start to see that the room she was being held in was dark. She looked around to see that the one who was supposed to watch her was asleep in his chair. His box of sugar cubes had fallen to the floor.

Eve quickly got up and opened the door to the other room. She saw Gustavo asleep in his bed in his pajamas. She quietly closed that door. No one was watching her. Now was her chance to escape.

She opened the door to the hallway and looked to her right. When she failed to see a soul, she left the room and went left down the hall. She was taken aback to see a woman with short, light brown hair running up to her. It took her a moment to recognize her as Alice.

Alice seemed surprised to see Eve there, but she just motioned to the young woman to follow her out of the building. It wasn't difficult, since there were no guards that were awake.

"Man, here I was coming to bail you out, but you already had your foot out the door. You sure don't like to waste your time," said Alice once they were running out in the streets, "I have to say, I'm impressed!"

"Oh, well thank you," said Eve as she started to fall behind the thief, "Could you please slow down, though?"

"What's that?" Alice asked as she looked behind her. She stopped in her tracks as she watched Eve get pulled into the black car she just ran by. Alice swore under her breath as the door slammed shut. She should have been more wary about running by parked vehicles.

She ran around to the driver's side and yanked the door open. She grabbed the dark-skinned man by the back of the collar of his blue uniform shirt and roughly pulled him out of the car.

"Hey! What's the big deal, dragging girls into your car like that?" she asked him angrily. She raised her fist to start punching the man when Eve grabbed onto her wrist.

"Wait! I know him!" she said. Alice raised an eyebrow at Eve before looking back at the man in her grip.

"Is that so?" she asked.

"Yes!" said the man, "I'm Elean, from the _Daily Days_."

"The newspaper?" asked Alice. When Elean nodded, Alice released him from her grip.

"Well, then, I'm sorry for almost punching you," she said.

"That's okay. I didn't see you run by, though. Where did you come from?" he asked.

"Somewhere," she answered dryly, "Anyway, this isn't a place we should stay out in the open at."

"You're right," said Elean as he climbed back into the driver's seat, "You can hop into the backseat, since you're Eve's friend." Alice nodded, throwing her bag into the backseat before climbing into the car herself.

"So, what's a broker doing out here?" asked Alice, "Did you intend to rescue Eve?" Elean nodded.

"Yes. I felt that it was my duty to do so, since it was because of us that Eve got into this mess."

"Wait, really? I thought you newspaper people only sat back and collected information, not get involve with mafia families," said Alice accusingly. Eve, however, ignored Alice's accusation.

"Thank you," she told Elean. Alice looked over at Eve, surprised. She was a lot more forgiving about this situation than Alice probably would have been.

"Eve, we're in no position to be accepting thanks from you," said Elean, slightly embarrassed, "That goes for what happened to you, as well as your brother."

"Wait, you know something about my brother?" asked Eve, a lot more alert now.

"It's top-secret information within the company, and I only know the smallest fraction of it, myself," said Elean. Alice leaned back in her seat, frowning.

"Hmm . . . I don't get quite what's going on here," she said, "But if you newspaper people are responsible for Eve's kidnapping, then I say that you should say what you know to make it up to her."

"I was going to do just that," he said before returning his attention to Eve, "Anyway, it seems that the Gandor family is connected to your older brother's disappearance."

"Gandor . . . You mean the mafia family?" asked Eve. Elean nodded.

"Really? I wonder when that happened. Actually, did Luck ever say anything about a Genoard?" wondered Alice out loud, racking her mind for when the Gandor's had dealt with someone by that name.

"Wait, you're connected to the Gandor Family?" Eve asked her, surprised. Alice nodded.

"Yeah, I'm an old friend of theirs. I've been doing jobs for them for years," she confirmed.

"So then you must be the Ghost of Manhattan, if I'm not mistaken," said Elean. Alice smirked at him.

"Ah, so you brokers actually have information on me?" she asked, sounding impressed.

"Just because the general population sees you as a ghost doesn't exempt you from being found out by the _Daily Days_. We've dug up your past as much as we could," he said. This conversation was cut off when Eve leaned over her seat towards Alice.

"Can you take me to them, please?!" asked Eve desperately.

"Huh?" Alice blinked, a bit surprised.

"Please! Take me to where the Gandors are!" said Eve, repeating her request. Alice stared at Eve for a moment, noting the look of desperation on her face. Alice scratched the back of her head. If Luck and them hadn't mentioned anything about this before, it was probably for a good reason. And the fact that the information brokers wouldn't normally say anything about it spoke volumes for what that reason could be.

However . . .

"Well, since you're a friend of mine, I don't see why not," said Alice, shrugging, "I need to meet up with them tonight anyway before they think I went and jumped onto another train."

**Hope you guys liked this chapter.**

**There's still no guarantee as to when the next update will be, but I will still try to finish this story!**

**In the meantime, please leave a review, telling me your thoughts on the chapter and story so far, and I'll try to come back as soon as I can with the next chapter. Later!**


End file.
